...aren't they a heartache....got back from a short break in Germany only for our fantastic reliable cat loving neighbour (who looks after him when we are away) to knock on our door...frantic..."I haven't seen him for 3 days!!!!!"....cat flap had been trashed inwards after he'd been locked in....maybe a fox or similar from the outside?????....food had been eaten ( fox or our boy)...well my heart sank....went out calling and he appeared, neighbours had been calling days before but he ignored them...he came to me after calling ....panic over...cats I love 'em but they worry me sometimes

So glad to hear your puss is safe and okay. Perhaps he needed to hear the reassuring tone of your voice after having his cat flap caved inwards. But know exactly how you feel!

I worried myself senseless about our family puss the whole twenty years we had him probably because I had one as a teenager that was killed when only 18 months old. I particularly hated the fact my last puss insisted on following me down the road so I was convinced he would get lost only for him to hide and dive out at me on my return. He got into several scrapes - had a torn ear from fighting, soaked through and covered in algae from falling in neighbours' pond, once lost his miaow from swallowing, according to the vet, something he shouldn't have, got locked in a neighbour's house, and had a very limp tail for a fortnight from doing goodness knows what.

Yes, I love 'em too but there's absolutely no way I could go through it all again!

Cats are gits for disappearing.

A few years back the Beast went AWOL for a while and I was in bits, cried at night when he was missing

As a young cat, living somewhere semi rural with little traffic, I got used to not seeing him in the summer mornings before going to work, but would leave some food down, which would be snarfed, and in the evenings when I got home he would make a brief appearance for dinner, before showing his bum and clearing out again.

Now he is getting older, not ancient (12) I worry about him a lot more; for all his gitness he is not a kitten any more, and if I don't see him appear soon after I get home, I start to get a bit twitchy.

The OH is more pragmatic, she loves him to bits, and spoils him more than me, but is calmer when he doesn't show up, and tells me not to fret.

This may sound a bit 'off' but I had the Beast before I even knew the OH, and although I am the one to scold him for his gitness, I know his behaviour and habits, right from him as a ball of fluff. She doesn't.

He is a git, a selfish one at that, probably thinks he has a stake in my will and is trying to finish me off with a heart attack